Tuesday, November 07, 2006

"Cyber-Neologoliferation"

That complex word is the title of an article published in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, November 5. The article describes the author's visit to the editor, "John Simpson and his band of lexicographers in Oxford" this fall. They are working on the third edition of every librarian's favorite book, the Oxford English Dictionary, and started their revision with the M's. If you want to know why, you'll have to read the article! It is fascinating to learn the process by which new words are added to the OED, and to learn that the "O.E.D. lexicographers are adding new words wherever they find them, at an accelerating pace." I had never heard of a lot of the new words that were listed in the article, e.g., "bahookie," "beer pong," "chucklesome." Maybe I need to get out more.

1 comment:

Betsy McKenzie said...

Thanks, Marie, for chucklesome post!